Alabama football is not following its own rules.
After wins, players and coaches preach the "24-hour rule," one where players can relish in what was done before the focus turns to what comes next. After Alabama 's 27-24 win against Missouri , Kalen DeBoer didn't see that. It was a group chomping at the bit to return to the film room and look to Tennessee .
And after Alabama's 37-20 win against Tennessee on Saturday, Oct. 18, at Bryant-Denny Stadium , DeBoer saw the same thing. There were smiles, sure. There was cigar smoke. But the focus was already on South Carolina .
That is what Alabama has been all season, DeBoer said. It's a group with something to prove, one still fueled by what happened in Tallahassee, Florida, in Week 1. No single game is good enough for Alabama, even the revenge wins.
"You can see it. You can hear it," DeBoer said. "Pads are popping every single day in practice. They got an edge to them still and haven't lost it since the beginning there after Week 1. It's hard to do. Really hard to do as you go through the weeks. There's been enough reasons, right, from different motivation factors to get up for games. Our guys, each and every week, find a way to do it."
It's a mentality DeBoer sees Ty Simpson embrace.
It didn't matter that Simpson is from Tennessee. Nothing was different. The quarterback's emotions were balanced. He stayed within himself, DeBoer said.
"This game isn't going to be a lot different," DeBoer said. "Yeah, there's going to be some feelings, some things that go way back and where he's from and all that. He just prepares so hard for every game that this game was not going to be any different from the others anyway."
What's coming is no different, whether it's for Simpson or Alabama as a whole.
For "another gutty win against a very good team," as DeBoer described Tennessee, Alabama's recipe is simple: keep the pedal down, stay humble and hungry and charge ahead.
The grind continues for Alabama
"We're playing solid football, team football," DeBoer said. "That's what matters."
Alabama will take on South Carolina at 2:30 p.m. CT Saturday, October. 25 on ABC.
Colin Gay covers Alabama football for The Tuscaloosa News, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at cgay@gannett.com or follow him @_ColinGay on X, formerly known as Twitter.
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Can Alabama football continue to keep an edge as SEC wins pile up?
